Vista - 2xGTX280 Graphics cards in SLI (different Brands)

So i have one Asus GTX280 and im thinking of getting another GTX280 to set it up in SLI probably Gigabyte or something

The question is will 2 same GTX280's run in SLI if they are different brands? same clock speed, same memory, will it work?

yes, as long as the cards are the same model, they will work flawlessly together, you can mix and match different brands, they dont even need to be the same clock speeds, just as long as they are the same model, if they weren't the same model, then vista will allocate one as a physics card

yep.....you wont have a problem

its even possible with different clock speeds, but they'll always default to the lowest speed.

i think you can even run a 192 & a 216 SP revision GTX260 in SLI, but again i think it will only utilize 384 SPs rather than 432 SPs

I thought this was also the case guys thanks, wanting to confirm.

I was also thinking about buying something like a GTX260 or 275 for physics or is this overkill for a physX Card?
would I be better getting something like a gts 250 or something even not as good as that?
I have a tri-SLI mobo so I thought I may as well utilise the PCI slots a bit.

if you got the spare cash, then go for it, but im not sure that a 275 will work, that would effectively be quad SLI, I would stick to a single core GPU, the 216 GTX 260's are going quite cheap at the moment

yes its OVERKILL!!!!! , get a low end 9600GT or something it'll cope perfectly well with PhysX

Cheers Archie, Thought I would only need something small neat and tidy, because from reviews Ive seen, 2 - gtx 280's with a 3rd graphics card for physx performs better than 3 - gtx 280's in tri-SLI, whether this is indeed the case i dont know, if it will still improve my graphics performance for 1/3 of the price of getting 3 gtx280's as opposed to 2x 280s + a 9600GT.
Its worth it to make your eyes bleed when you have 16AA + 8AF on 1920x1200 display showing Farcry 2 with every feature maxed out on 70FPS.
And so it was written that PS3's graphics never had anything on PC

Why not just drop a 100$ and get a good physX card, a whole lot cheaper. Preforms pretty good, low cost also.

The reason why why I wouldnt, is if one of my mates had a display adapter problem on their pc, I could quickly transfer my new low end graphics card (used for physX on my pc) to theirs and use it as a graphics card, just as cheap, does the job, and I can use it to help others too.

Why would you get a 280? It's virtually obsolete. DirectX 11 will be here by January, and if you can't wait a single GTX 295 is enough or a pair of 4890's in crossfire.